-Shep in the past month or so has been much more interested in food. (Before I would offer it and he would kind of snack or throw it on the floor.) Now he signs "more" over and over throughout the day, telling me he is hungry.

-He still does not have ANY teeth! So I'm always worried to give him certain foods for fear of him choking. I'm probably being overly crazy, but who knows! No signs of teething yet either.

- He is still breastfeeding and I plan on letting him self wean.

- He recently started going to bed more easily. Up until about this month, I was spending a lot of time at nap and bedtime nursing him for comfort and usually letting him fall asleep. Now he is letting me put him down after only a few minutes nursing, and completely awake and going to sleep on his own.

- We start bedtime routine around 7:30pm most days. Bedtime routine is just bath time with Daddy, and then Daddy putting lotion on and pajamas before handing him off to me for nursing.

- He has been waking up every night around 2:30. We started something new this week...I'm trying to teach him to sleep on his own without needing me to nurse him. I don't think its doing him any favors to have me as a sleep prop and he is old enough to sleep through the night. So when he wakes up at this time, instead of me going to him, Joey goes in his room, makes sure he is ok, gives him his paci, rubs his back and gets him back to sleep. Each night is getting better, with it taking less time for him to fall asleep. I still have mixed feelings about this, but thats what we are doing for now.

- He then usually wakes up around 5:30/6, I do nurse him at this time and I think this is when he is nursing the most for nourishment. He then goes back to sleep until 7:30. At 7:30 when he wakes up we always put him in bed with us for a little bit. It would be so nice if he would snuggle, but he usually just climbs all over both of us like a jungle gym until we get up. He also nurses at this time too.

I wanted to write a few things down to remember about this time. I was asking my mom what our nighttime routine was when I was his age and she couldn't remember. So I want to make sure its written down for future reference ;)

Rather than try to catch up from my non blogging, I'm just going to share a couple of random things happening over here!

- Shepherd loves to pull the hinge out of his closet door and play with it. (Other favorite toys include Daddy's wallet and kitchen spoons...seriously why buy toys?) I always let him take the hinge out, because why intervene on fun play, right? Well because now it is LOST causing his closet door to not open. If anyone sees us and wonders what in the world my child is wearing, know the hinge has still not been found!

(refused to put down that spoon, even at the playground!)

- Father's Day was a lot of fun. We went to church the night before, so Sunday we just relaxed as a family. We took Joey to his favorite restaurant (Texas Roadhouse) for lunch. I loved the way his gift turned out:

I had the book made at Walmart, but I also like to use Shutterfly and Pinhole Press.

-Also on Father's Day weekend, we had to make a visit to Joey's favorite place...Lowes. He decided we needed to buy a tree, so the three of us drove the half hour home like this:

- Joey's company had their summer picnic and it was so fun. I kept thinking about when Shepherd is older how much he would enjoy it. They had huge bouncy houses, a watermelon eating contest, snow cones, yummy food...and best of all a fun petting "zoo." People from the aquarium came and Shep got to pet a penguin!

- Joey plays a lot of tennis, and his games are usually past bedtime. But now that it is summer they are having them earlier, so Shepherd and I get to go watch. I am so excited for the day Shepherd takes his first tennis lesson.

-Shep has been eating a lot more and he is a MESS. I usually just stick him right in the bath after he eats and hose him down. Here he is signing "more" with banana all over his face!

I've been MIA for awhile now. Thought I would check in and share some pictures from Memorial Day weekend. I know I'm behind, but I've been sick going on 2 weeks now! I've got a nasty cold I can't kick and Shepherd has been sick too. Poor guy has his first ear infection. It took me over a week before I decided we both needed to go to the doctor, because it seemed such a hassle over a cold. Did I mention I also somehow got pink eye?? How?

Hopefully we will be back to the land of the living soon. Its miserable to be cooped up inside when its so nice out!

Memorial Day we tried out Shep's new pool he got for his birthday. He had so much fun! Talk about a good way to wear out your baby. Sun + water = Exhausted = Long nap!

Earlier in the weekend Joey and I got to have a date night because my fam was in town and we had a babysitter. I could tell I was getting sick because after dinner I decided to skip the movie because I just didn't feel up to it. So we still haven't seen The Great Gatsby :(